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Little went right for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.

The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.

In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”